Affective Activisms and the Right to Have Rights in Turkey

“An eloquent and moving account of collective struggles for rights, recognition and “a liveable life.” Through an analysis richly in dialogue with feminist and political theory, Avramopoulou powerfully illuminates the quest of precarious subjects to create new forms of living."

— Jane K. Cowan , Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Sussex

“A fantastic contribution to the study of feminist and LGBTQI+ activist worlds in Turkey that is both stunningly original in its ethnographic observations and tremendously generative in its theoretical pursuits. A must read for scholars and students of social movements' claims for rights in authoritarian political atmospheres." 

— Yael Navaro , Professor of Social, Political and Psychological Anthropology, University of Cambridge

“Affective Activisms provides a richly ethnographic and powerfully original analysis of activism in contemporary Istanbul. Its an essential reading for understanding contemporary social and political struggles."

— Sarah Green , Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki

"Affective Activisms' nuanced exploration of the intersections between local and global activism is both timely and relevant, offering valuable insights for scholars and activists alike." 

— Aslı Kotaman , CAIS Alumni

This book presents a novel study of contemporary social movements and activisms through extensive ethnographic research of feminist, LGBTQI+, and women’s religious groups in Istanbul from 2007 to 2015.  Chapters interweave personal accounts and life histories of individual activists to illustrate how activism is a performative and affective language of intersectional hopes, desires and dreams as much as it is a legal battle over who or what might appear as being broken under specific historical and social settings. Employing gender and sexuality as analytical tools, this book makes sense of local and transnational politics of resistance in the face of the re-emergence of authoritarian regimes, sexual harassment, gender violence, homo/trans phobia, and Islamophobia.

Eirini Avramopoulou is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece.